Here are some fun ideas for incorporating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) activities into your preschooler’s learning! Check out my science worksheets and math worksheets for more ways to engage your child! Try the Lego (TM) Color Sorting sheet, Living vs. Nonliving cut and paste exercise, and more.
Science:
Fizz —
Fizzy experiments require chemical reactions of ingredients, making them an ideal choice for preschool science. Preschoolers will love watching the baking soda and vinegar fizz up! Add food coloring to incorporate some color-learning fun!
–Pumpkin Fizz:
Make pumpkin fizz from baking soda, white vinegar, and orange food coloring!
–Superhero Fizz:
Make your own Superhero Fizz with supplies you have at home!
–Volcano Eruption:
Combine dish soap, vinegar, food coloring, and baking soda to make your own erupting volcano science experiment!
–Winter Fizz:
Combine blue glitter, baking soda, vinegar to create a wintry-looking fizzy science experiment!
Gummy Bear Experiment–
Let’s find out if gummy bear candy grows larger in water with this fun (and yummy) gummy bear experiment. In this experiment, we will see if gummy bears grow in plain water, or in salt water, or not at all. Gummy Bear STEM Experiment
Five Senses–
-APPLE 5 SENSES ACTIVITY:
using our 5 senses are key to the scientific process, conducting experiments, and making observations.
Use your eyes to identify the color of the apple. Use touch to identify what the apple feels like. Use your nose to smell the apple. Use your sense of taste to identify if the apple is sweet or bitter. And use hearing to find out if the apple makes a crunching sound while chewing.
Fake Snow–
Make your own fake snow by combing shaving cream and baking soda! This science experiment is “snow” much fun to make. Your preschooler will love playing with their fake snow.
What Floats?
Floating Boat Activity: In this activity your child gets to see if objects sink or float by themselves, and if the ones that sank can float on the boat.
Sink or Float Experiment: We picked 5 items from our house to see if they would sink or float in a bowl full of water. (Pick a variety of weights so that some sink and some float.) Fill a bowl with water. Before putting an item in the water, ask you child to guess if it will sink or swim. Why do they think that? After trying each item in the water, count how many sank and how many floated.
Engineering
Marshmallow and Toothpick Construction–
-ENGINEERING: preschoolers learn basics of creating a structure.
-MATH: build one-dimensional shapes with the marshmallows and toothpicks, such as a triangle , square, and a hexagon. Then build 3-dimensional shapes, such as a cube or a pyramid.
FROOT LOOPS TOWER–
Build your own Froot Loops Tower as part of your preschooler’s STEM activities!
-SCIENCE: a fun (and yummy) way to learn colors.
– MATH: patterns and sequencing are important math components for preschoolers to learn. By making Froot Loop Towers, they can experiment with patterns by putting the cereal on the spaghetti noodle in different sequences.
STACKING CUP TOWER–
-ENGINEERING: building towers out of cups is a fun way for preschoolers to grasp the building blocks of engineering. Preschoolers learn about building a sturdy base that can support the tower.
-MATH: patterns using different colors are early math skills. Counting cups and sorting them into color groups are foundational skills for math success.
Build an Edible Cereal Rainbow –
Make a free-standing rainbow out of marshmallows, a pipe cleaner, and cereal. This a yummy and fun STEM activity! https://imaginationsrunningwild.com/2022/03/15/edible-cereal-rainbow-activity/
-SCIENCE: a fun (and yummy) way to learn colors.
-MATH: patterns and sequencing are important math components for preschoolers to learn. With this activity they can experiment with patterns by putting the cereal on the spaghetti noodle in different sequences.
-ENGINEERING: constructing a free-standing rainbow requires applications of building skills.
Math
SHAPE WEAVING–
This paper plate shape weaving activity is great for preschooler’s fine motor skills and shape recognition. Kids get to paint and wrap yarn! As they wrap the yarn, talk about how many sides the shape has and how many points it has.
CRAFT STICK SHAPES–
-MATH: learning shapes and counting how many sides each shape has are important preschool math skills to learn.
Use plastic cups and craft sticks to make 3 dimensional shapes!
Apple Counting–
Download apple flashcards and tree page to have your own apple counting fun 🙂
GRAPHING–
Construct one of the themed-dice, roll the di, and teach your preschooler about graphing under the disguise of a fun game! Which color will reach the top first?
Unicorn Graphing: This unicorn graphing STEM activity is so much fun that your kiddo won’t even realize that it is math! We call it our unicorn game 🙂 My son and I take turn rolling the dice and placing our color tiles on the graph.
Bug Graphing: Which bug will you role the most? Graph your dice rolls with colored tiles that match each bug and see which bug reaches the top of your graph first.
Ocean Graphing: Ocean graphing is recording how many times an ocean animal picture shows up each time you the roll the di on the bar graph included in this set. The purpose of this activity is to introduce young learners to the concepts of probability, recording answers, and counting. Once you have completed your graph, count how many times you rolled each animal.
Halloween Graphing: Add some spooky STEM fun into your preschooler’s learning with this Halloween graphing activity! See which Halloween picture you roll the most times.